


To Have a Home

by SpaceEdgars



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Adoption, F/M, Family, Found Family, M/M, Not Beta Read, Taako and Krav adopt a kid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-04 22:28:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14030190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceEdgars/pseuds/SpaceEdgars
Summary: "What if we... adoptedakid?"For thirteen year old Alaela Ashtar, who's parents disappeared when she was just a year old, her life has been the Creedkirk Orphanage, which is odd for an elf. All the Sundergang Agency, who recovered her from the neighbor her parents had left her with before their disappearance, could gather was that her parents had been a High Moon Elf, (former) Princess Arode LaLaer, and a Sun Elf, Ionir Ashtar. Neither side of the family had been happy with the union, and refused to take young Alaela in, leaving her an orphan in the care of the Sundergang Agency at the Creedkirk Orphanage. It is unknown where they went and what happened to them.Alaela has been here twelve years, when finally a couple takes interest in her.[Edit: Arode is now a Moon elf thanks to a commenter! I know nothing of elf lore.]





	1. Eleven Years Does a Lot to an Elf

Taako stood at the bay window of his penthouse suite, watching as the sun lowered itself over the Neverwinter skyline. He’d had a lot of guests over tonight, and frankly, he was exhausted. The usual crowd was there, his pseudo-family from the starblaster, the bureau and the people he’d met on his adventures, and also a swarm of people he wasn’t as familiar with, but they were all celebrating the same thing.

Angus’s graduation.

After attending the Academy of Arcane Sciences since it opened, eleven years ago, Angus had earned degrees in several of the schools of magic, and Taako was grateful that Transmutation had been among the first.

But now Taako was _feeling_ things.

Of course he was happy for the kid (despite the fact that he was adult- by human standards), and damn proud of him too. Eleven years ago, he would have been reluctant to admit this to anyone, but over the years he’d learned to not keep everything in, so when he felt arms wrap around him, he leaned back into Kravitz’s embrace.

“Everything alright, love?” he asked.

“Yeah, it's just like,” Taako started, “I’m gonna, like, miss him?”

“Taako, you know he’s got an apartment in town, right? He’s got a job teaching at the academy, and he’ll still come visit, just like he did when he was in school. You know that.” 

“I know, but it will be different. He won’t be forced to come here when student housing closes for breaks,” Taako said as he turned around in Kravitz’s arms pressing his forehead into the taller mans shoulder, “fuck man, he was like my kid.” 

Taako paused as he admitted this.

“Fuck, did we like, accidentaly help raise a kid?”

“Yeah,” Kravitz chuckled, “I guess we did.”

-

Over the next few weeks Taako mulled over the fact that he was going to _miss_ the feeling of _raising a kid_. And he came to a conclusion.

“Hey Kravitz,” Taako started during a dinner at home one evening, “can I uh, propose something to you?”

“We’re already married, love,” Kravitz said with a smirk.

“That’s not what I mean- I’m trying to be serious for once!” Taako protested, crossing his arms and slightly glaring at his husband.

“Sorry, dear, I just couldn’t resist,” Kravitz apologized, “What were you going to say?”

“I, well, I’ve been thinking about how we kind of, ya know, helped raise Angus, and that, I’m going to kind of, well, miss that, So, I was thinking that,” Taako was starting to stutter at this point, and he could feel his heart racing in his chest as he prepared himself to ask this question, it felt like proposing all over again, “what if we… adoptedakid?”

Kravitz put down his fork, and was silent for a while, thinking Taako’s proposition over, it wasn’t like they _couldn’t_ raise a child, and admittedly Kravitz had always wanted a kid.

“I- I think I would want that. But I don’t know how the world would handle _the_ Taako toting around an infant…”

Taako let out a relieved breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding, “Thanks, Krav. I’ve thought a lot about this.”

“You know, when I was alive, I dreamed of having kids one day,” Kravitz said, and Taako beamed at him. Despite the table between them, Kravitz found himself with his arms full of elf.

After a moment of the two smiling at each other like idiots, Taako spoke. 

He giggled, “I wouldn’t want to take on, ya know, a baby. I mean like getting finding a teenager or something, I don’t want to do that potty training shit.” 

Kravitz laughed, “Wouldn’t want to ruin the Taako Brand. With baby barf.”

“Ew,” Taako said, and then nuzzled into Kravitz’s neck “Hey, Kravvy? Do me a favor and don’t mention this to my sister or anyone else. But especially Lup.”

“My lips are sealed,” he said and then kissed the top of his head.

-

In the weeks that came after, they both did their fair share of research into how to adopt a child.

Unfortunately, Kravitz was caught doing his research at work. By Lup.

Kravitz had been searching through the Fantasy Neverwinter Yellow Pages for adoption shelters, adoption agencies and orphanages, as well as doctors and pediatricians, while taking a break from work, when he’d gotten an unexpected call on his stone of farspeech from Taako, which, as they’d discussed, any call that involved their plan for their future child, started with a sultry “Are you alone?~” that caused Lup to fake gag and for Barry to roll his eyes. Kravitz had quickly left the room to talk to his husband. 

Taako was excitedly telling him that he’d found and contacted an agency that worked with the Creedkirk Orphanage (which was one of the entries Kravitz had circled in the Fantasy Yellow Pages), and that he’d scheduled an appointment with them to start the process of adopting a child the next week on Kravitz’s day off.

Meanwhile, Lup took a break from doing her paperwork to see what Kravitz had been working on all morning, considering it was the Fantasy Yellow Pages. The open page was in the N section and had ‘Neverwinter Children’s Clerical Center’ circled on it. Flipping it to the page before it showed a circle around ‘Neverwinter City Hospital.’ 

“Hey, Barry, c’mere,” Lup said quietly, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes as she flipped back through pages.

“Yeah? Why are we snooping through Krav’s business?” Barry asked.

“Because all that’s circled here are stuff about kids!” Lup hissed, then paused after seeing the circled entry ‘Navenjar Hospital’ and under it ‘pediatrician’s center’ and ‘maternity ward’ marked beneath it.

She pointed at the entry, “You don’t think that one of them’s…” she stopped, hoping Barry could fill in the blanks.

“No, Lup, that can’t be possible, like, biologically. They’re both male,” Barry said.

“You realize who you’re talking to, right?” Lup asked, “and that she has a brother that knows exactly how to fix _that_ kind of problem with transmutation right? Like he’s the best transmutation wizard in over one hundred material planes, right? Like it’s totally possible…”

At that moment, the door swung open and Kravitz returned to the room. Seeing his coworkers standing over the open book on his desk, Kravitz abruptly stopped.

“Uhh, well, fuck.” he stated.

“Krav, did you get my dear, sweet, baby brother pregnant?” Lup asked

“I, uh… no… not exactly,” Kravitz stuttered.

“Are you getting a surrogate?” Barry asked.

“No,” Kravitz sighed, “Taako didn’t want you finding out but, we’re… adopting a kid?” Kravitz quickly pulled out his stone of farspeech and called Taako.

As Taako answered Lup inhaled, ready to interrupt Kravitz’s words, but before she shouted, Barry quickly clamped his hand over his wife’s mouth.

“I’m afraid the cat is out of the bag, love.” Kravitz said into the phone.

Lup licked Barry’s hand and shouted “Are you telling me I'm gonna be an aunt?”

“How the _FUCK_ did you let it slip?” Taako said as he facepalmed from his office at his Amazing School of Magic. Ren, who was the only one let in on their plan because she knew how to talk to people and do research on this sort of thing, laughed at Lup’s outburst from the other side of Taako’s headmaster’s desk.

“I may have been doing my own research and left it sitting out on my desk as I left to talk to you.”

“Ghost Rider was circling entries for kid stuff in the Fantasy Yellow Pages! Bro I thought you were pregnant for a hot minute after I saw an entry for a maternity ward circled!” Lup said.

For the reapers, all they could hear was Ren laughing maniacally as Taako spluttered as he tried to form a sentence.

“Lulu, dearest sister, do you think that _I, Taako,_ would saddle myself with an infant, including _carrying_ said infant for that long? Also Krav, why in hell would you circle a maternity ward? We’re talking about adopting a teenager!”

“I don’t know I guess I went too young in my search for kid stuff! I was looking at places were we could find pediatricians and agencies and stuff!” Kravitz said defensively. 

Lup followed his comment with “I didn’t know you two were interested in having kids in the first place!”

Taako hung his head in defeat “Just, come over for dinner tonight and We’ll explain everything.”

Meanwhile Ren was still cackling.


	2. One... Vision from Childhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet Alaela, and some other kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really have no idea how adoption works, so if I get things wrong just roll with it. The Faerunian system is different.

After hours of meetings with Sundergang Agency, Taako and Kravitz finally found themselves at the Creedkirk Orphanage in the northern part of Neverwinter. The building looked like a mansion, and the agency said it had been a for-sale private home that had been bought to rehome the orphans that were left behind during the relic wars. It had been remodeled to have playrooms for each age group, and four person rooms that the children shared. 

The agency had explained a lot about the process. They would go to the Creedkirk Orphanage and get to see the kids in the age they were interested in, as they were in their playroom. They were told that the playroom for the 10-18 age group had an assortment of craft and art supplies, cards and board games and books, among other things. They were informed that the older kids spent most of their time doing homework, as the Neverwinter government paid for them to go to the local schools. They were also informed that there were only about six children at Creedkirk older than ten, with the oldest being 13 years old. 

Taako and Kravitz had decided they didn’t want their fame to influence the way the kids act, so when they entered the building and met with their Sundergang agent, a dwarven woman named Marga, she agreed to let them use disguise self for when they entered the playroom to see the kids. Marga explained that the kids would act differently upon _anyone_ entering the playroom. She also explained that some of the kids might compete for their attention, but after a little while they would settle down. 

Taako’s disguise self was purely cosmetic. He was already wearing a toned down version of his normal outfits, a pair of skinny jeans, a white blouse with a red scarf, he’d left his hat behind, too. He disguised his features so that he was about half a foot shorter, and his hair was now a dark brown and cut to his shoulders, as opposed to the back length blond braid it normally was. He was also devoid of the makeup he was wearing.

Kravitz looked totally out of his element with the disguise self placed upon him, he had worn a suit, but Taako’s disguise for him kept his cosmetics almost the same, but placed him in a teal polo and slacks. Taako spent about ten minutes laughing at how kravitz looked, because in his mind Kravitz had about five dress modes, reaper mode, dapper tuxedo, must-include-suit-jacket, sweatpants and t-shirt mode, and naked, which is a mode only he got to see. He also decided that Kravitz’s ponytailed dreads should be left down in his disguise. 

They took a step into the playroom.

-

Alaela was working on her sketches for art class. She knew several potential adopters were coming by today, but whenever a new couple would come in she would hardly look up from her work. No one in 12 years had adopted her, and she didn’t expect that to change. Some nights she would allow herself to hope that someone would want to take on the responsibility of raising an elf, given that, to their understanding, they would have to watch over her until she was one hundred. She also knew that the prospective parents got a little bit of background information on the kids they were interested in, and so when the few who might of liked her learned her parents might still be out there, and that her extended family had no interest in her because her parent’s marriage wasn’t sanctified by an elven priest, they probably got scared of the fact that someone might eventually come after her. Or maybe they were scared she would become a bard, because both of her parents had been bards.

That’s the other thing she let herself hope- that her parents would come back for her, which is another reason she stopped competing for the attention of the adopters, because she wanted her parents.

So far today two groups had come in. A single woman looking for someone to be her clerical apprentice, which surprised her, because normally the agency filtered out people looking for kids to raise with an alternative to getting a kid. No one got called out to officially meet her, so maybe she found someone in the little kids room. 

The second group was a human man and a female half-elf, who actually caught her interest because maybe a half-elf would take interest in her, she came over and asked what her name was, and introduced herself- but she had obviously been named by her elven parent because her name was needlessly complex. They took a look at Jason, who was loud and rambunctious and loved to build things, which seemed to please the man. Jason returned with a smile on his face, and she was happy that it had seemed to go well- maybe he would finally get a home after six years.

“Attention, children!” Marga called as she entered the room followed by a third couple.

The third couple was composed of what looked like a male Elf (of some sort- Alaela could tell something was up with him maybe he was a Wood Elf? Or a Sun and Moon Elf mix like her?) and a dark-skinned human man, which caused her to actually watch them when they were introduced.

“Hello everyone,” the elf said, in a voice that seemed familiar to her for some reason, “My name is Ta-” he coughed, “‘Scuse me, my name is Taanquin, I can’t wait to meet you all!”

“An you can call me Mac!” Said the human. Something about his voice was off too- Alaela could tell his accent was fake- it was good, but not perfectly foreign. 

They toured the playroom, examining Jason’s trinkets, who was showing them what each one was and what they did. Drayden, who was practicing his recorder for his fifth grade music class, he was actually decent- as decent as one could be on a recorder, actually received some pointers from Mac and his playing sounded a bit better. Alaela thought to herself that Drayden would make a fine bard one day, like her parents were. 

Alaela turned her attention back to Taanquin, who was talking to Elyssa, a gnomish girl who had been working on her math homework until the elf had approached her, and she quickly began talking about how she liked to sing (Elyssa wasn’t good at singing) and dance (she was okay at tap, but not ballet). Taanquin entertained her for a while before dismissing herself to talk to the other children. 

Together Taanquin and Mac talked to Marcus and Aaron, who were playing cards on the couch, when Marcus leaned over to shake their hands, (he had been raised by a wealthy businessman until he passed and he joined the orphanage) he knocked the stack of cards over and Taanquin quickly whipped out a wand and levitated them back onto the couch before they scattered all over the floor and ruined the boys’ game. Marcus and Aaron stared at him wide-eyed, while Alaela narrowed hers.

Taanquin was a _wizard_. Alaela _loved_ wizards.

She had a feeling Taanquin was using some wizardly abilities right now. She didn’t know enough about spells- they didn’t have those kinds of books on the shelves in Creedkirk, but from what she’d read about in the Neverwinter North Middle School library she bet it was the cantrip mage hand.

Alaela tried to play it cool when the couple came over to her, just looking at her sketchbook and adding details to her drawing.

“Hey, kiddo! What’s your name?” Taanquin asked her.

“I’m- I’m Alaela,” she said, putting her colored pencil down and looking at the two men.

“What are you drawing? Can I see?”

“Yeah, it's for class, supposed to be something that we think is interesting,” Alaela said and turned the book around so the men could see.

Some of the other 8th graders at Neverwinter North were drawing flowers or space scenes. She'd chosen something she’d never actually seen.

-

It was a colored sketch of Fisher and Junior.

Taako tried his best to keep his emotions in check. Its almost ironic how he hadn't thought of the voidfish in years. Fisher had been a part of their family, and despite how he and junior had been used to erase his memories of the people he loved, he was awestruck with the picture.

“The voidfish, huh? Why’d you draw him?” Taako asked as he tried to hide the shake in his voice. He placed his hands on the table to brace himself, Kravitz placed his hand on top of his.

-

Alaela wasn’t looking at them, she was nervously looking at the ceiling. “Well, it had to be something we were interested in, and I was like, two when the Day of Story and Song happened- I was already here in the little kids room, so I don’t remember the story all too much. Of course I’ve read stories and stuff, I’ve read all the birds biographies and the biographies of the other heroes from that day.”

“That’s complex reading for such a young girl,” Mac said.

“Just because I’m small doesn’t mean I can’t read complex things,” Alaela said annoyedly. That’s another reason she stopped competing for attention. Her skills were artistic and academic- and when potential parents came by and she started talking- she’d overexplain something and the people would dismiss her.

“I was going to say I’m impressed,” Mac added.

That changed Alaela’s attitude. No one had ever been impressed before. She looked Mac in the eye. “I have this vague memory from when I was young. Just this image of the voidfish as they sang their song,” Alaela said quietly, “this is the first time I’ve drawn it though.”

Taanquin smiled at her, and there was something behind that smile that Alaela couldn’t read.

“Ahem, sirs. I’m afraid your session is over, please come with me,” Marga suddenly appeared, ruining the moment.

“Good luck on your drawing,” Mac said as he turned.

Taanquin gave her the same smile, and whispered “You’re going to be amazing.”

-

Marga turned to them once the playroom door had been closed.

“Anyone you’re interested in adopting?” she asked.

Kravitz and Taako looked at each other for a moment, having a seemingly silent conversation with their eyes.

“We- we think we’d like to adopt Alaela.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To keep updated on my life follow SpaceEdgars on Tumblr!
> 
> To see Barry Content check out my Barry side blog, b-b-and-j!
> 
> Comments are always appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr User SpaceEdgars!
> 
> Chapter 2 will be up when its complete! I literally wrote this chapter in like 3 days, and I'm on spring break so hopefully I'll get it up before the week is out!
> 
> After this the chapters will become primarily from Alaela's POV, except for a few moments.


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